Counterfeiting, tampering, and product diversion account for nearly a half-trillion dollars in worldwide business losses every year. While these business losses are staggering, public trust is also declining as a result of these problems. News stories documenting problems such as black market fraud, theft, gray market goods, and product tampering contribute to the dwindling public trust in the authenticity of goods and services.
Marks incorporating a multiplicity of microparticles (“microparticle marks”) have been used in the past to combat counterfeiting, tampering, and product diversion. Microparticles have been used for identifying and authenticating many types of materials and objects, including the use of microparticles directly in bulk materials (e.g., fertilizer, chemicals, paints, oils, plastics, pigments, clays, fertilizers, and explosives), the use of marks incorporating a multiplicity of microparticles on or in containers for prepackaged materials (e.g., shampoo, conditioner, lotion, motor oils, and pharmaceuticals), and the use of marks incorporating a multiplicity of microparticles on individual product units (e.g. stereos, cameras, computers, videocassette recorders (VCRs), furniture, motorized vehicles, and livestock).
Since the late 1970's, multi-layered color-coded microparticles specifically have been used to covertly mark materials and objects. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,053,433 and 4,390,452 and GB Patent No. 1,568,699 describe multi-layered color coded particles for marking articles. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,433 describes a method of marking a substance with microparticles encoded with an orderly sequence of visually distinguishable colored segments detectable with a microscope or other magnifying device. GB Patent No. 1,568,699 describes systems for making microparticles of layered colored material, which have generally parallel flat surfaces with irregular broken edges there between, enabling visualization of the code.
Other examples of multi-layered color-coded microparticles are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,647,649 and 6,455,157, wherein each describes methods for generating unique codes from sets of multi-layered color-coded microparticles. Additional types of microparticles are described in DE Patent No. 19,614,174 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,927. DE Patent No. 19,614,174 describes a process for producing multi-layered microparticles by forming a laminate sheet of colored layers and crushing the sheet. The individual marking layers are applied by a printing process, by bronzing, by spray painting, or by roll coating. U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,927 describes microparticles encased in a transparent solid matrix obtained by hardening a liquid adhesive.
While the use of multi-layered color-coded microparticles is generally known, the interrogation of marks generated with these particles has been done manually. Thus, the mark is either observed directly by an individual through magnifying optics (e.g., microscope) or an image of the mark is captured and subsequently observed by the individual. In both of these cases, the mark or image of the mark is interpreted by the individual, who then determines the microparticle code. This process can suffer from being expensive, time-consuming, and also presents the potential of human error in the identification of the microparticle code. As a result, the process is not practical for real time, larger volume applications, such as credit cards, passports, drivers' licenses, high-value branded products, and any tickets.
Automated reader systems have been developed for single expression microparticles, such as the readers for thermal or laser activated microparticle powders as described, for example, in PCT Pub. No. WO2005/104008A1. These single expression microparticle readers generally rely on both the “invisibility” of the microparticle until the microparticle is activated by the reader and the random location of the microparticles dispersed relative to a registration mark to create a unique code for the security and authentication purposes. Although such automated reader systems for identifying random patterns of single expression microparticles can be useful, the significantly higher level of complexity associated with automatically reading anything other than the presence and/or location of single expression microparticle marks has so far stymied the development of automated readers for multi-layer multi-color microparticle marks.
While the microparticles, including multi-layered color-coded microparticles, can represent a level of security that is generally useful in protecting against counterfeiting, tampering, and product diversion, it can be anticipated that a day will come in which counterfeiters will attempt to create two-dimensional images depicting marks incorporating a multiplicity of microparticles and place the counterfeit images on counterfeit or diverted products. Although a human may easily distinguish such two-dimensional replica images from a genuine three-dimensional multi-layer multi-color microparticle mark when viewing a magnified presentation of the actual microparticle mark, two-dimensional replica images create challenges for automated readers that rely on detecting the existence and location of single expression microparticle marks or powders.
There is therefore a need for an automatic microparticle reader system, apparatus, and method that can overcome the inherent deficiencies with conventional marking systems and methods.